Today’s Sounds: Sun Airway

Surreal and psychedelic are the descriptors being tossed around in an effort to capture the washed-out levity of the Philly duo’s sound. Surreal suggests that the songs are packed with non-sequiturs or ill-fitting marriages of sounds, while psychedelic implies that this is drug music, with ties to ’60s and ’70s rock. Neither is true, though there’s no doubt that this record would make a nice meal for your ears on soft or hard psychedelics. My go-to adjective for this kind of sound is ethereal, but even that fails in this instance.

Record:

Sun Airway, Soft Fall (Dead Oceans)

 
Surreal and psychedelic are the descriptors being tossed around in an effort to capture the washed-out levity of the Philly duo’s sound. Surreal suggests that the songs are packed with non-sequiturs or ill-fitting marriages of sounds, while psychedelic implies that this is drug music, with ties to ’60s and ’70s rock. Neither is true, though there’s no doubt that this record would make a nice meal for your ears on soft or hard psychedelics. My go-to adjective for this kind of sound is ethereal, but even that fails in this instance.

There are better ways to describe the music made by Jon Marthmus and Patrick Marsceill — they’ve even suggested a couple. Their moniker and album title, for example, go a long way toward grasping the imagery evoked by their songs, awash in expansive synths and effects, underpinned by tangible keyboard riffs, piano or strings, occasionally bolstered by beats programmed for the dancefloor. I was surprised to learn that this was recorded in a basement, because it sounds like the product of a sun-drenched solarium. I was not surprised to read that the duo performs as a quintet live, because there have got more than four hands working to reproduce this wondrous sound on stage

Aside from a couple of instrumentals, the record  is predominantly poppy, and rife with the kind of catchy choruses and eau de ’80s nostalgia that could give Sun Airway crossover potential. Then again, I doubt ’80s radio programmers would’ve favoured production this dense with crackling noise, not to mention the then-very-uncool orchestral flourishes. And unlike the kind of plundering that many ’80s-obsessed musicians are up to these days, this aesthetic has a welcome freshness. That said, there’s a recurring synth effect in “Activity 3” that is straight outta Madonna’s “Lucky Star.”

Check out “Close” (we featured its video here a couple of weeks ago) and the equally pop track “Black Noise” (along with the rest of the record) here. Then lie back and dream up some descriptors of your own.
 

Track:

Jet Life, “No Sleep”

 
That’s right, it’s the first single from the next album by Jet Life, aka Curren$y, Trademark da Skydiver and Young Roddy. Jet World Order Vol. 2 is out on Jet World/iHipHop Nov. 12.
 

 

Video:

Divine Fits, “Would That Not Be Nice”

 
We won’t stop hyping these guys (these guys being primarily Spoon’s Britt Daniel and ex-Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs dude Dan Boeckner). As if their Montreal show and debut album weren’t enough, they’ve now released a great video directed by Brian Butler, providing a colourful and vaguely macabre new spin on the old performance-video format.
 

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